What Does Job 34:35 Mean?
Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without skill.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom.THE KEY
Speech is not itself evidence of knowing: this verse names the gap between words, encounter, and discernment.
THE MEANING
As you read, the verse draws a sharp line between speaking and knowing: words can be spoken without knowledge formed through encounter or understanding. It names Job’s speech as lacking both, and leaves the accusation sharp.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Having words on a subject does not, by itself, mean that one knows it.
THE ROOT
דַּעַת
daʿat
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive, with the sense of knowing through encounter rather than information alone.
“knowledge” in this verse is daʿat. The charge is not merely that Job lacks facts; his speech is said to lack knowing that comes from encounter. The verse sets that kind of knowing beside discernment, making the gap between speaking and truly knowing its central tension.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know, perceive, or recognize.
יָדַע
The verb shows the living action behind daʿat: knowing is an encounter, not just possessing words.
deʿah: Knowledge or understanding.
דֵּעָה
This related noun makes the knowledge in the charge more than information; it is a grasp of what is being spoken about.
דְּבָרָיו
devarav
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
“speaks” in this verse is devarav. The verse uses the same root for Job’s speaking and for his words. Hebrew holds the utterance and its content together, so the judgment falls on both what is said and the act of saying it.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
A word belongs to the matter being spoken about; the verse does not treat speech as empty sound.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This is the speaking action in the first half of the verse, sharing its root with the words in the second.
בְּהַשְׂכֵּיל
behaskil
GROWS FROM
שכל
To understand, act prudently, or perceive with insight.
“skill” in this verse is behaskil. The KJV renders this as “wisdom,” while the Hebrew carries the sense of understanding or acting with insight. The accusation is that Job’s words do not arise from that discernment.
ALSO GROWS
sekhel: Understanding, intelligence, or prudence.
שֵׂכֶל
This noun names the discernment the verse says Job’s words lack.
maskil: One who understands or acts insightfully; an instructional composition.
מַשְׂכִּיל
This related form connects insight with what a person produces, echoing the verse’s attention to words.
THE PATTERN
Speech reveals whether knowledge and discernment actually ground it.
The tongue of the wise makes knowledge good, but the mouth of fools gushes out folly.The words of a wise one's mouth are favor, but the lips of a fool swallow him up.Who among you is wise and knowing? Let him show his works from a good walk, in the tamed gentleness of wisdom.THE THREAD
The tongue of the wise makes knowledge good, but the mouth of fools gushes out folly.Both verses use דַּעַת (daʿat, knowledge), from ידע (yada, to know or perceive): Job’s speech is said to lack it, while the wise tongue uses it aright. Together they show knowing as something speech either carries or fails to carry.
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